Learning to deal with cyberattacks will increase critical thinking skills

By D.J. Rambo Pease CTA

Updated
6:02 pm CST, Monday, January 7, 2019

Learning to overcome these attacks will increase students’ critical thinking skills and teach them to not always take something at face value. Slowly but surely, we can overcome hackers and make their jobs harder.

Learning to overcome these attacks will increase students’ critical thinking skills and teach them to not always take something at face value. Slowly but surely, we can overcome hackers and make their jobs

Learning to overcome these attacks will increase students’ critical thinking skills and teach them to not always take something at face value. Slowly but surely, we can overcome hackers and make their jobs harder.

Learning to overcome these attacks will increase students’ critical thinking skills and teach them to not always take something at face value. Slowly but surely, we can overcome hackers and make their jobs

Learning to deal with cyberattacks will increase critical thinking skills

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Atlanta was hit last year by a major cyberattack that the city was not prepared for. When city workers logged into their computers, they found that their files were missing. Some computers displayed an error message displayed and could not be used. The attackers wanted $50,000 ransom to undo all the damage, but the city decided to not comply. News articles state that the city has spent close to $17 million to recover from the attack, as well as countless hours making technology updates and upgrades.

This is what is known as a “ransomware” attack. It uses a malicious program to take or hide data on one or more computers and threatens to publish or delete the data unless the user or company does something in return, typically pays ransom. This poses the question, “How were hackers able to infiltrate the network?” Most likely, computer updates were not installed.

Many people do not install computer and program updates as recommended. These updates, whether from Microsoft or Apple, are intended to patch any holes that hackers find in a network, yet thousands of people ignore the notifications. By doing do, the computer and/or network is open to attacks such as Atlanta experienced.

A few years ago, my school was hit by a “phishing” attack (a website or email that appears real but is completely fake). Eight of our teachers fell for a fake email that said there were files ready to be shared with them. The catch was that these emails were sent by people who were known and trusted but were unaware that they had been hacked. Once the teachers clicked on the link, it asked them to login to their email. The website it took them to looked just like the Gmail login, but it was the hacker’s site. Luckily, we were able to recover quickly by changing their e-mail passwords and clearing out some settings.

From an educator’s point of view, this is not only as a lesson for adults but is an opportunity to prepare the upcoming generation to tackle this issue. This needs to become a top priority for all educators and parents to equip their children for the good and bad of technology usage.

Learning to overcome these attacks will increase students’ critical thinking skills and teach them to not always take something at face value. Slowly but surely, we can overcome hackers and make their jobs harder.

Here are five points to teach to children to ensure critical thinking when they are approached with an online situatin

--If it’s too good to be true, it probably is.

Hackers love to catch your eyes with hard-to-pass deals such as “click here for a free iPad” or a loophole to get your favorite item for free or ridiculously cheap. Another popular one is to share a message from Bill Gates where you will get a portion of his profit because you shared it. None of these are true, and will only involve you with many strings attached, which is not worth your time.

--Information on the internet is false unless proven true.

People fall for “fake news” from illegitimate websites every day. One common article that is spread around is about a celebrity passing away, when he/she is alive and doing well. Teach yourself and your kids to consider the source. If it is from a well-known and credible news source, then it most likely is true. Look at the URL on the top of your webpage and see where the article is located. If it is a website that is not known by many people, chances are that part, or all, of the information is fake.

--Look for spelling and grammar errors.

This is a reason why it is vital to continue teaching spelling and grammar in schools. Almost every single virus or malware attack I’ve encountered includes multiple errors. If you see any errors, that is a red flag that something is not legitimate. Apparently, hackers are not as “smart” as we think they are.

--If the e-mail asks you to click on a link, think again.

There are only a few occasions when you need to click on a link in an e-mail – changing your password, accessing your username, verifying that you are who you are, etc. Most phishing emails want you to click on a link so you can be taken to the hacker’s website. This is one of the primary ways in which hackers attack people on Facebook. They hack a person, send a hacked message to their friends, and ask the friends to click on their link to see something important. You can hover your mouse over the link to see where it really is taking you.

--Games downloaded online are not always what they seem to be.

It’s OK to play games online but be careful because many games contain viruses. This is called a trojan virus because it will disguise itself within a legitimate program to trick the user to install the game. Refrain from downloading games except from legitimate and well-known gaming websites. Better yet, install the app from the Apple or Google Play store to ensure playing games that are safer.